

ニンジャスレイヤー フロムアニメイシヨン
Ninja... Ninja were... merciless demi-gods, ruling Japan with their karate in the age of ninja tranquillity. But, "some" committed a forbidden form of hara-kiri storing their souls at Kinkaku Temple for future resurrection. Their lost history was falsified and concealed and the truth about these ninja was long forgotten. Now, in the future where the universalization of cybernetic technology and electronic networks are God, suddenly, sinister ninja souls, resurrected from thousands of years past are unleashed on the dark shadows of Neo-Saitama. Fujikido Kenji, is a salaryman whose wife and child were killed in a ninja turf war. In a brush with his own death, Fujikido is possessed by an enigmatic ninja soul. Fujikido cheats death and becomes Ninja Slayer. A Grim Reaper destined to kill evil ninja, committed to a personal war of vengeance. Set in the dystopian underworld of Neo-Saitama, Ninja Slayer takes on Soukai Syndicate ninjas in mortal combat. (Source: Animanga wikia)
Ninja... Ninja were... merciless demi-gods, ruling Japan with their karate in the age of ninja tranquillity. But, "some" committed a forbidden form of hara-kiri storing their souls at Kinkaku Temple for future resurrection. Their lost history was falsified and concealed and the truth about these ninja was long forgotten. Now, in the future where the universalization of cybernetic technology and electronic networks are God, suddenly, sinister ninja souls, resurrected from thousands of years past are unleashed on the dark shadows of Neo-Saitama. Fujikido Kenji, is a salaryman whose wife and child were killed in a ninja turf war. In a brush with his own death, Fujikido is possessed by an enigmatic ninja soul. Fujikido cheats death and becomes Ninja Slayer. A Grim Reaper destined to kill evil ninja, committed to a personal war of vengeance. Set in the dystopian underworld of Neo-Saitama, Ninja Slayer takes on Soukai Syndicate ninjas in mortal combat. (Source: Animanga wikia)
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Millawls
June 19, 2015
You need to understand something about Ninja Slayer, before even WATCHING it, or you WILL get the wrong idea! A lot of you seems to be very confused, as to why some scenes are animated and some scenes are powerpoint. "Why are they doing this?" I hear you say. Let me explain. A couple of Japanese translators said over social media, (this is a while ago) that they were going to translate a "light novel" that a couple of american weeaboos had made. The american weeaboos made THE most stereotypical light novel that they could think off. (Ninjas, Hidden power, revenge) Basically Ninja Slayer in a nutshell. (Orliterally) Now here's the twist. The american weeaboos didn't exist in the first place! The people who wrote the light novel made it up. They wanted to make a light novel, based on how weeaboos thought anime/manga was back in the 80's and 90's. So they made Ninja Slayer. Have this in mind when watching this. It makes it SO much better. It's not supposed to be good. Imagine a couple of american weeaboos, sitting together and writing a novel, based on their brief knowledge on japan, (That came from watching anime.) and THIS is what you get. It's not taking itself seriously and the animation is supposed to be "bad." How else would you explain it being in 4:3 format like on old TV and the scenes that are actually animated, versus the ones that have Southpark level animation. Now for the actual review. I say this without a single gram of sarcasm. Ninja Slayer is a masterpiece. This is not a troll review, giving it 10/10, just because "lol". This is my honest opinion about Ninja Slayer that has brought me to give this a 10/10. There are few times when any type of entertainment, be it games, manga, music or in this case anime, can make me yell "YEEEEAAAAAARRRRRRRTTTHHH" UNIRONICALLY and without feeling shame afterwards. Ninja Slayer is incredibly stupid, incredibly funny and in-fucking-credibly entertaining. I find it hard to put into words how amazed i am by this show. I sincerely feel sad about the people who dropped it on the first episode, or failed to correct their expectations of this show. The entire point behind Ninja Slayer is showing what animefans/weeaboos thought anime was back in the late 80th, early 90th. The dialogue is cheesy, the art is flashy and very neon colored. Hacking into things solves everything and every female ninja is skimpily clothed. There's a certain feeling that i'm sure everyone on earth knows what is. You can't explain it, you don't know how to evoke it but you are 100% sure what it is when you feel it. THAT'S Ninja Slayer. I get "that" feeling when watching it. Ninja Slayer isn't just anime. It's art. I'm not being sarcastic.
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lawlmartz
October 10, 2015
Absurdity kills reason. This is your power. - Naraku Ninja I would almost be willing to rate Ninja Slayer a 10/10 based purely on entertainment value. One thing though. The most entertaining part about Ninja Slayer isn't the dub. It's the audience reaction and kids who absolutely don't get the joke. Here's your warning: if your idea of entertainment is purely based on pretty colors and flashy animation, PSST, you're doing it wrong. Artwork and Animation: Query: Is a black and white movie inferior to one in color? Is a color movie inferior to 3D movies because OH MY LAWD THEY LITERALLY ADDED ANOTHER DIMENSION!? The answeris no. So, to anyone who says that Ninja Slayer sucks because of the animation- just because it uses a different visual style than you've come to expect from the typical T&A anime you watch, it's time for something new. Ninja Slayer is essentially Inferno Cop 2.0- now with a budget! So, if you saw Inferno Cop: you know what to expect from the style here. It's an Adult Swim-styled in betweener short if you haven't. Lots of iridescence, reds, explosions, and booms, bangs, and fire. Sound and Voice Acting: 10 YEEEAARRT! AUUUUAAAGHHH! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAARRRTTTT! AUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAGH! RECITE YOUR DEATH HAIKU! SAYONARA!!!!!!!!!!!!! BOO00000OOM The rest of the cast recites their death haikus appropriately, also with a lot of explosions. These voice actors are great at producing explosions on the mic. It's basically like listening to the collab mixtape I did with Papa Franku. Sound and Voice Acting: F'real this time Christopher Sabat does the best cool macho man there's ever been. He's been a suave black dude, a pedophile priest, he's been several violent psychopaths, an enormous muscleman, a lot of various anthropomorphic beasts, and probably most famously Vegeta. Add kickass badass superpowered ninja slaying monstrosity to the list. Couldn't ask for better. Characters: Too many to count. Ninja Slayer dispatches about 5 ninjas of various thematic origin per episode, plus a thousand clones, meaning at least half a million ninjas eat it by the end of the show's run. However, we do have some standouts: the sexy IRC hacking blonde: Nancy Lee, Ninja Slayer's partner in dispensing sweet, sweet justice to the asshole ninjas that rule Neo Saitama. Her superpower is directly connecting her consciousness to IRC via an ethernet port on her head, where she hacks everyone's life and Ninja Slayer just rekt.exe 's them. There's also Yukano Dragon, the young amnesiac granddaughter of Ninja Slayer's master, Dragon Sensei, Forest Sawatari, shellshocked leader of the Survival Dojo fresh out the jungles of 'Nam, Koki Yamoto- the ubiquitous schoolgirl that every show must have, Shogo, white boy sporting a rad-ass afro and no shirt, because he's a punk ass, too. Story: As nonsensical as one would believe Ninja Slayer to be, it does actually follow a plot. Kenji Fujikido's family was ruthlessly torched by ninjas sent by the Soukai Syndicate, run by the 30 foot tall giant Laomoto Khan. On his deathbed, he accepts a ninja soul, Naraku Ninja, and with his newfound power vows to kill all ninjas, ESPECIALLY whoever it was that killed his family. The first half or so is a set of really disconnected threads featuring a lot of different characters who take over the main spot for a short arc, and then in the second half, it's all brought together by their interactions and various confrontations with Soukai ninjas- kind of like a Tarantino movie, taking a lot of random unassociated people and tying up their motives and actions together, except with a lot more YEEEART. (There is a lot of hilarious and clever dialogue, courtesy of the narrator though.) Enjoyment and Overall: It's hard to really nail down what makes Ninja Slayer so much fun. If one is not amused by absurdity and parody of parody, Ninja Slayer is probably not going to be a lot of fun to watch. However, absurdist humor is popular with anime watchers. I know this, because besides the ubiquitous "guy falls on girl and ends up grabbing her boob" joke that's in every boob and butt show now, anime is a medium that lends itself to absurdity and being far removed from realism. Why am I laughing at a cross dressing shark and a bunch of 13 year old girls with superpowers blowing up giant robots covered in tons of food, all while hopping from planet to planet and throwing galaxies like baseballs? Because it's ridiculous, that's why. And that's why Ninja Slayer works. It's ridiculous. YEEEAAART/10 10/27 Unnecessary Clarification: The whole idea of Ninja Slayer (and I left this out because my review was crap already) is that it was written by two Japanese dudes posing as American weebs writing a parody of 80s ninja action schlock in the schlockiest way possible. Expository Statement: That is, it's a parody of a parody, parodied in a parody style of animation with double layer parody dialogue and, well, actually a fairly decent plot. I don't want to call it Tarantino-esque, but... Tarantino-esque. You have a bunch of disconnected random characters who all end up tied together in the overarching plot. It's not The Usual Suspects or anything, but it gets the job done well. Revenge tales historically have been fairly easy to write (because there's a specific goal) with a lot of wiggle room for inversion, subversion, and likewise. It's a very flexible narrative. Commentary: Whacking Ninja Slayer for the story is a bad point to pick, at any rate. (not that I would). I mean, I know not everyone liked the animation style, that's personal preferences. I know that it seems like there's basically no character progression (there's not much), but the fun isn't in analyzing it for its literary depth, because that's not its bag, baby, yeah. I read some of the translated part of the novels, and the show is basically a 1:1 visual and auditory recreation of the dialogue and scene setting. Whoever wrote it had to have given Trigger permission to animate it like that, and probably thought it was hilarious that something that's a parody of a parody looked as bad as it read. Statement: You just gotta see Ninja Slayer for what it is, and that's up to the individual to make of it- but to me, it's just plain laughable ludicrosity.
ArthurB
October 10, 2015
Remember that everything that is written here is part of my opinion and should not be taken as truth. You can draw your own conclusions about this series by watching it. This review is free from spoilers. First of all Ninja Slayer From Animation is one of those anime that makes a critic about the current anime industry, using - if anything - poor animation techniques, strange music and a really basic plot to bring the potential of a series not by the anime itself, but by how it was conceived... And once you get graps of it, everything makes sense. This anime is based upon anovel made by some people that doesn't exist. I'll explain it better... This anime was fruited from some rumors made by a group of japanese translators who said that they would translate a project made by some americans (that did not existed in the first place) who created a stereotypical story with ninjas, karate, very tall buildings, etc. The translators faked the original authors. They made the novel themselves, writting about a Japan twisted like some hollywood-like movies represented it on the 80's and 90's. Having that in mind, let me tell you the ratings I gave to this anime. Story 9; It is passed on a twisted Japan where mafia and revolutionary groups exists, in the city of Neo-Saitama. It's a very simple story about a man who wants revenge from the killers of his family and the basic plot follows his acts while pursuing that revenge. The one thing that is great about this anime is how this "revenge-like" steps are being executed. You can feel the difficulties the protagonist have while following his path of hatred. Sound 10; The OST for this anime is a mix of some classical japanese sounds with some technobeat. It really changes the atmosphere of the anime in some parts. Also, the Ending Theme for this anime changes every single episode (with some exceptions). It is the perfect match for an anime passed on a future-like Japan, with the clash of past-present references. Character 9; The characters are all stereotypical of the movie/anime industry of 80's and 90's. The thing is we can find these characters very enjoyable! Really, almost every character have a personal - and very common - drama of himself/herself and it is explained in a very simple way, so we - the audience - can understand them and so get inside the plot and their reasons to do what they are doing. Enjoyment 10; Having said what I did in the begining of this review I will explain why I enjoyed this anime so much. If anything, TRIGGER should be the first responsible for this overexcitement. From the way this anime is executed - Short episodes of 10-15 mins, released in the web, with "strange" animations, following a very simple plot - it had everything to be a fail... If it wasn't by the information on how the "original novel" was conceived. When I got that information, I could get grasp on what TRIGGER was trying to do. And the answer is simple, an anime of 80-90's in these days is complete madness! We are on the pinacle of animation techniques, with 3DGCI all over the place and the quality of textures being outstanding, TRIGGER choose to make an anime with poor animation sequences, with a really simple plot and with some basic soundtracks mixing old and new type of music. But everything, EVERYTHING makes sense on how great this anime is if you understand that they are making a critic about how the West had seen the East in the two final decades of the twentieth century. With that in mind, I enjoyed this anime so much. I could just enjoy this anime, expecting nothing but a great anime, not creating any hype on how great could be it's story, but just expecting to enjoy an anime where everything I got to see from the 80's and 90's could be conceived. Overall 10; My overall note represents mostly my enjoyment with this piece of work. You must understand that this anime is a critic, made upon a novel that did not existed in the first place with a poor plot, released in some awful animation quality over the web, with some strange composed music remixing classical japan instruments and modern beat. It is very like the "Kung Fury" movie. It is an anime that blends every single trait of a 80's and 90's work and put together to create a great anime! Ninja Slayer From Animation will be remembered as one of the greatest anime ever made by the people who watched it. It really is a masterpiece! Hope you like the anime so much as I did. Have a good day.
dgfv
October 12, 2015
People talk about context being the key to either understanding or appreciating this anime and maybe that's true on some level. However, I don't think that the context of the show is actually necessary to enjoy it. Instead, the only real requirement is the ability to not take yourself or the world around you too seriously. Almost everything is beautiful if you look at it from the right angle and finding that angle is easiest through a playful attitude. For a child this comes naturally. Playing is how children explore the world. They don't actively try to categorize meta behaviors like what constitutes intelligence orwhat might make you seem erudite or cool. Instead, the world seems to be taken in by them through their wondrous sincerity. For adolescents everything changes. Expectations. Strong emotions. Desires. An ego begins to grow. They're not so much caught between the aforementioned two worlds but rather living in a kaleidoscope constructed from the shards and shattering images of their reality. Life isn't play anymore, it's work. And what confusing work it is when you're confronted with an anime like Ninja Slayer From Animation that does the one thing a teen doesn't want to happen anymore: it subverts conventional anime with a continuous, sometimes jarring, onslaught of sincere cliches. It doesn't just subvert anime, it obverts it. Bad is good, good is bad, quality is bad, shit is good. The adult has transitioned, perhaps somewhat unknowingly, from childlike sincerity through a whirlwind of emotion and angst, to a joyless adult. But with enough anime like NSFA she can find that place again. here's the numbers. * Story 9/10 -- The show has a simple and concise story lovingly cribbed from every anime in the 80s and 90s. However, if you really think about it and can see through the humor it's actually quite a sad story despite it presenting itself consistently as just funny and generally badass. * Art 10/10 -- The throwback 5:4 aspect ratio art swings wildly from absurd south-park-esque flash animation, through colorful and gorgeous pans and scans of cityscapes and characters, to gloriously epic BUDGET animation. * Sound 10/10 -- The sound, from the bgm to the sfx to the 26 fantastic ED songs, is nothing but perfect. * Character 9/10 -- The characters are, as with the rest of the show, homages to anime's 80s and 90s heritage. They're chock full of all of the fun cliches that make anime the cultural powerhouse it is. And yet, if you're like me, you're gonna find yourself empathizing and fist pumping with the characters. * Enjoyment 10/10 -- For someone who has watched not only a lot of anime, but a lot of very diverse anime, feeling nostalgic while watching a show that reminds you of another can be somewhat bittersweet. You're reminded of what was and what cannot be again. With NSFA you get slapped by nostalgia with the right and slapped by youthful enthusiasm with the left. The effect is better than nostalgia, it's life. You know that feeling you had when you watched cartoons as a kid? That's what you get with NSFA. So there you go. I gave NSFA an unironic 10/10.
BanjoTheBear
March 11, 2016
(This review has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!) “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” This is a commonly known phrase. It means that, when seeking revenge and enacting that revenge, you need to be as heartless, evil, and cold as humanly possible. Just the word “revenge” sounds ominous enough, but when combined with the other words in this saying, it becomes a sinister aphorism. Ninja Slayer From Animation is built on revenge. And repetition. And revenge. And saying “Abbah!” a lot. And repetition. And ninjas. And comedy. And, of course, repetition. For Kenji, it is not “revenge is a dish best served cold,”but rather “revenge is me forcing you to ‘recite your death haiku’ and me chopping off your head.” I am a gentle person, so I cannot say that I have sought revenge of this magnitude. However, I have taken part in petty revenge. Stuff like ignoring a teammate in a multiplayer video game because he insulted me. And now having seen Ninja Slayer, I have some more petty revenge to take part in. STORY In an anime like Ninja Slayer, it can be pretty easy to say what should not be taken seriously. Nancy used for nothing more than sexual relief? Not serious. Each ninja exploding in a ball of flame for no reason? Not serious. One of the ninjas being a giant lobster? Not serious. The problem is when the anime does try to be serious. Since everything else was not serious, it can be hard to take its serious moments seriously. For example, Kenji is frequently visited by his ninja soul. Metaphorically he represents Kenji’s inner rage, but given the soul’s ridiculous looks and demands, is the audience meant to take this more seriously than its sex, explosions, and lobsters? This is not to say that the anime is deserving of justification, because it most certainly is not. Ninja Slayer’s narrative is a mess, and that is putting it lightly. The majority of the show is comprised of multiple plotlines focusing on a specific character or set of characters. Plotline is a bit misleading, because Ninja Slayer’s threads barely contain any. What this amounts to is a lot of events happening without anything “happening.” Generally, the anime sticks to singular, isolated instances. Kenji and Nancy invading a yakuza clone laboratory. Koki crossing paths again with a boy from her past. Dark Ninja receiving a visit from a strange entity. But no matter the plotline, the problem is encountered: none of it matters. Events almost never build off one another, causing nothing but confusion. The worst case of this is when Kenji arrives at a resistance movement (that was never mentioned) to find Yukano (who was forgotten about) and cure her of her amnesia (which is given only the smallest of explanations). Each plotline also has nearly the exact same set of events happen each and every time. The protagonist shows up, the ninjas bow to one another, and everyone screams a combination of “Yeaart!”, “Arrrgh!”, and “Sayonara!” Ninja Slayer is so repetitive that one of its major conflicts – Kenji fighting against Naraku Ninja, his ninja soul – happens so often that it starts to lose its thematic meaning of embracing one’s anger without letting it take control. The ending alone is enough to demonstrate how all-over-the-place the show is: almost every single plotline, from Dark Ninja’s “destiny” to Yukano’s amnesia to Nancy’s golden cube, does not conclude. And because their plotlines have yet to conclude, Kenji’s has not ended either, despite defeating (one of) his final opponents. So not only is the narrative filled with disconnected plotlines but the ending is so inconclusive that the audience cannot help but wonder if anything other than Laomoto’s death actually happened, let alone mattered. But perhaps the biggest pitfall for Ninja Slayer is one that it technically never makes. The anime does, in fact, have an overarching plot – Kenji seeking to avenge the murder of his wife and child. This is the driving force of not just Kenji’s character but also the narrative. Despite this event being so important and literally meaning everything to the anime, not once is the actual scene shown. The scene is alluded to. The scene is talked about in passing. But the scene is never actually shown. Not showing this scene or the events leading up to it or anything else related to such a monumental event makes it nearly impossible to understand Kenji’s plight. That is to say, the foundation for the show is never established from the get-go, so everything that occurs throughout the season lacks a sense of purpose. Thus, whether or not Ninja Slayer wants to be taken seriously does not matter because the narrative is seriously broken. ANIMATION Ninja Slayer takes an insane approach to its animation in that it barely has any. This is not an understatement. Much of the show is filled with cardboard cutouts that stand still but move as if a child were playing house with them. A character does not dodge projectiles, he casually spins in the air. A character does not sprawl on the ground, she lays there as if she were turned to stone. A character does punch another character, he or she moves toward the target, overlaps with the enemy, then moves back. It is an awkward display that forces one to imagine what could have been. To be fair, the anime does have animated sequences. These, however, like the repetitive story, are mired in repetition. Many fights consist of the same, frame-for-frame set of punches or kicks, lasting many more seconds than necessary (“seconds” seems short, but when the exact same animation is played over and over, those seconds start to add up…). Animated sequences that are not cutouts or repetitive instances are present, but they are rare, leaving Ninja Slayer more or less immobile from start to finish. Now, Ninja Slayer is a comedy. The cutouts and the repetition, no matter how asinine, is hilarious to watch if only because one cannot believe that it is happening on-screen. This gets back to the previous talk on seriousness. The low animation quality might be something the audience is meant to laugh at. It is an enticing thought if only because it is almost more insane to believe that frozen characters, streams of green goo, and overly realistic explosions were approved beforehand with a clear mindset. And just to be even fairer to the anime, the show can be pretty clever with its minimum amount of animation. At one point, Kenji is talking with Nancy through a chat room on the computer, but since Kenji is bad at typing, his response is extremely slow. The result is a good minute of both Kenji and Nancy sitting and doing nothing in cyberspace. Similar to the better animated sequences, these clever moments are rare, but they are welcome without a doubt. Artistically, Ninja Slayer is diverse in its settings, a result of the multiple plotlines. A decrepit city, a moving train, a huge skyscraper, some bamboo woods, and a shipping yard are just a sampling of the areas visited over the course of the show. In fact, the anime is almost always in a new place with each new episode, reducing (however slightly) the overall amount of repetition. Furthermore, the anime is a rainbow, the colors as diverse as the locations and vibrant in hue. Sometimes the colors can be too bright, which is jarring to see among the darker, more realistic backgrounds, but the wide range of colors is nice to see even if they are not moving much. Again, to be fair to the anime, the show can get clever with its artistic direction. Throughout the season, Ninja Slayer had giant black bars on both sides of the screen. During the last fight, when Kenji morphs into his final form, these black bars shatter, signifying that he has, at last, achieved tranquility. Per usual, these are rare moments, but they add to the novelty of the entire package. Better than both the art and the animation are the character designs. While the women are designed with sensuality in mind, the rest of the cast, like Notorious and Gatekeeper, are some combination of weird, goofy, and intriguing. Kenji’s red garb with green outlines and impossibly long scarf turn him into the ultimate ninja. Nancy’s black, skin tight outfit, blonde hair with bun, and voluptuous figure make her out to be the sexy minx that she is. And Dark Ninja’s all-purple attire, with a killer, behind-the-back samurai sword gives him a cool, villainous vibe. CHARACTERS Like Ninja Slayer’s story, the characters in the anime can barely be called characters because there is hardly anything about them worth mentioning. Nancy is easily the worst written. She has a special neural-to-computer ability, but when her only directive is to be placed in blatant sexual circumstances, her character becomes less of a person and more of an object. Kenji is almost no different. His go-to line is “ninjas shall perish,” though he does have compassion for ninjas and people who are morally sound. Kenji does not develop much over the course of the season; he constantly seeks revenge and murder, but his character is seldom challenged. He often wrestles with his inner ninja soul, but whether or not he should take a different path or how his actions affect the people (now) close to him are not outright explored. This makes his character rather stale throughout the season. His anger becomes a part of him and not his sole motive as the anime ends, but that is not nearly enough to make up for how plain his character had been. Yukano had a chance, but the anime drops the ball severely. Yukano is the daughter of Kenji’s former master, Dragon. Following Dragon’s death at the hands of Dark Ninja, she disappears. When she reappears, she calls herself Amnesia because she now has (coincidentally enough) amnesia. She joined an unexplained resistance group, found love at first sight (who is killed off immediately), and essentially becomes evil through her inability to see that her current actions are wrong. As she puts it, she is a “different person.” The problem is that the audience never got to see who she was before, so her transformation has no basis. In fact, the only characterization the anime highlighted was her huge bust. Almost every other ninja that Kenji and the others encounter is a one-off. They appear, provide their formalities, and proceed to be killed off in some capacity. Only a select few manage to remain relevant throughout the season. Dark Ninja is the most obvious. Yet he, like most of the cast, does not have his past divulged or his motivations made clear. Dark Ninja has next to no presence, appearing to fight Kenji only a handful of times. Altogether, he is a lackluster villain. Laomoto, the main bad guy, is the same. Besides just being mean and huge, nothing about him says he is a worthwhile antagonist. Forest is the only smaller ninja that remains alive, though he is more a comic relief character due to his incoherent mindset. Koki is arguably the best character that Ninja Slayer has to offer, but again that is not saying too much. In passing, the viewer learns of her suicide attempt and killing of her parents (supposedly, because it is never brought up again). When she gains her ninja soul and refuses to join the Soukaiya, she flees, protecting her best friend and, indirectly, deciding that life is an adventure worth taking. She meets people like Kagi (Silver Karasu) who teaches her in the ways of the sword, acting as a father figure of sorts. Later on she teams up with Genocide the zombie-priest ninja, proving that friends come in all shapes and sizes. While the end shows her still wandering the world alone, her plotline being inconclusive makes a bit more sense since her overall goal is a bit more aimless and her encounters are a bit more random. Everyone except Nancy has one thing in common: the ninja souls. The souls they harbor give them their powers, but they also give them some symbolic meaning. For Kenji, his soul gives him unrivaled potential and symbolizes his rage that is nearly palpable. For Koki, her soul gives her psychic abilities and symbolizes the mental taxing she experiences with each new encounter. For Laomoto, his multiple souls give him his size and symbolizes his “final boss” status. Each ninja has a different ninja soul, and while they are not all shown in detail (technically speaking, Kenji’s is the only ninja soul that regularly speaks with his human host) their souls match who they are as a person. At least, to the extent that the soul matches their name and their persona. Koki and this ninja soul symbolism somewhat make up for the abysmal rest of the cast, but only barely. SOUND Ninja Slayer almost never forgets to start its episodes with its opening theme. The all-English lyrics make the song extremely easy to sing along with, even if they do not really make sense. The piece itself is, true to form, somewhat repetitive during the first part. Also, the first part is just a lot of noise without much substance. But once the second part kicks in and the song lets the vocalist do the work, the strength of the piece is heard. Contrary to the OP and one of Ninja Slayer’s most surprising twists is its ending themes. Plural because the anime uses a different ED for almost every episode. The EDs are mostly rock-n-roll and experimental in design, fitting the oft over-the-top and quirky scenarios that permeate the show. The range of tracks alone is impressive, but it is their ability to cap off each episode in a fun manner that makes them a welcome addition. Plus, this is one of a select few instances where Ninja Slayer foregoes repetition, so at the minimum one can be happy knowing that a new ED is the reward for making it through the “same” content once more. Voice acting performances in Ninja Slayer are not that impressive, but each role is filled nicely enough. Toshiyuki Morikawa as Kenji uses both a manly and disciplined voice that fits the name “Ninja Slayer.” Chiwa Saito as Nancy gives the sexy woman as sexy of a voice as possible. And Sora Amamiya as Koki deserves a special shout-out for her childlike “Yeeart!” The biggest wonder is whether or not Kenji, Nancy, Koki, and everyone else always gives a new rendition of “Yeeart!” or “Aaaargh!” every time they have to speak those words, or the anime simply reused the same clip time and again. It is probably the latter, but the former makes their efforts that much more notable. Finally, the remainder of the original soundtrack is a combination of many different genres at once. Some tracks use Asian instruments for that ninja feel. Some tracks focus exclusively on funky beats and techno tunes. Some tracks are downright mysterious. The OST does not reach the same level as the EDs, but it is considerably better than most anything else that Ninja Slayer has to offer. ENJOYMENT I think this anime is on the line between infamously bad and “so bad it is good.” On the one hand, there is so much wrong with the show. Repetition up the wazoo. Boring fights. Absurd developments. The anime even has the audacity to use up an entire episode of scenes that, for one reason or another, were omitted over the course of the season (the scene featuring the masochistic person is particularly bizarre, as is the one with the owl). On the other hand, each of these problems can be entertaining in their own right. Hearing Nancy say “Take this!” over and over is oddly hilarious. Watching as each ninja explodes in a glorious fashion – Laomoto is essentially a nuclear bomb – is comical. Seeing the insane doctor jump on his hot nurse, with accompanying still-character animation and silly voice acting, is funny. The show has a certain charm to it that is only possible because everything is as ridiculous as it is. I liked the first half because it felt “fresh” in the sense that this was an anime unlike any I had seen before. The yakuza constantly screaming “Hey, screw you!” The technically-animated-but-not-really sequences. The moonwalking ninja beating up the handicapped, Medusa-esque man. Unfortunately, due to the repetition, the second half is not the same; that earlier charm starts to wane. Kenji saving Nancy for the umpteenth time or the fights proceeding in almost the same fashion lacks that initial appeal that the first half did. To be fair (I have been saying this a lot with this one…), the second half does have its moments. The final fight against Laomoto is easily the best because it incorporates moves from earlier in the season as well as lasting for quite a while. The battle does end on a repetitive, back-and-forth, fist-to-face exchange, but the OP playing in the background during the initial bout makes up for this. The second half also has my favorite episode from the entire season: the episode where Koki and Genocide become buddies. I liked the zombie-priest ninja since he reminded me so much of the monster from Frankenstein (sort of the point). He was the brawn to Koki’s brains, so such a duo was a perfect match. They sadly part ways, but it was still a weird, fun, and heartwarming episode. Ninja Slayer From Animation hits itself with its own shurikens. The story is riddled with issues, its characters are not worthwhile, and its approach to animation is laughable in more ways than one. Combined with the gross repetition that plagues everything, it is almost a miracle that the anime even exists to begin with. Revenge is a dish best served cold. But for some petty revenge, simply force someone to sit through this anime. SUMMARY Story: Terrible, nonsensical, incomplete, and purposeless Animation: Fine, while the actual animation is essentially nonexistent, the nice character designs and artistic direction, alongside some clever moments, make up for this hilarious decision Characters: Bad, Koki is okay and symbolism exists, but Nancy, Kenji, and every other ninja lack any sort of strength Sound: Fine, okay OP, good EDs, okay OST, about average VA performances Enjoyment: Fine, hilarious and charming in its own right, but this hilarity and charm wanes the more it is watched Final Score: 3/10
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